Hatake Kakashi: Facing the Demons of the Past
by Wei Ai Shen
Summary: Kakashi still blames himself for Rin's death but when her murderer appears near Konoha Kakashi is forced to make the decision between the girl he once loved and his duty to his village.[Kakashi centric]
1. Part I

Hatake Kakashi: Facing the Demons of the Past

A/N: Yeah, this is my new and awesomely revamped Part I. Please notice the amazing new grammar and the lines. Yay for lines!

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**PART I**

"Why did you do it," he asked. "Why did you have to kill her?"

"I didn't expect you to understand. Just realize that there was nothing you can do and get over it. Nobody cares about your promise to protect her. She's dead and nobody cares. Nobody but you," replied the girl harshly.

"Isn't that enough. Is my pain not enough to matter?"

"No. Just leave. You can't defeat me just as she couldn't."

"I'll defeat you. I will. You think that you're the most powerful shinobi in the world, but one day I will kill you."

"Whatever you say. I'll wait for the day we meet again and I _die._"

Before the girl could leave the boy cried out in pain, "Why have you betrayed me? Why have you betrayed Rin? And why have you betrayed the village?"

"When we meet again, I promise that you will learn everything," the girl said with a hint of remorse. "Just stay strong and don't let the guilt destroy you. It was never your fault."

* * *

Kakashi woke from the dream as though it had happened yesterday. "It was never your fault" echoed painfully in his head. It was his fault. It had been ten years since he last saw that girl but, despite her words, he couldn't stop the pain at knowing it was his fault. He had let Rin die. He should have killed that girl long before.

Glancing at his clock, Kakashi realized that he was supposed to have met his team at the training fields an hour ago. Sighing, Kakashi stood up and, shaking his head, got ready to meet his team.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat under a tree at the training fields. They were used to waiting for their sensei and it seemed that today was no exception.

"Hey Sakura, do you want to go swimming?" asked Naruto.

"No."

Sighing, Naruto accepted Sakura's first rejection of the day. She could be a little nicer, he thought, but kept it to himself.

Kakashi arrived a few minutes later and his team barraged him with questions. The usual.

"Well, you see, ummmmm…" Kakashi stopped, not having enough energy to make up an excuse.

His team stopped chiding him and stared. Kakashi never failed to give them a random and completely untrue excuse for being late. Something was up.

"Is something wrong Kakashi sensei?" asked Sakura.

"No, nothing is wrong Sakura. I just don't have a very good feeling about today. I mean, I staid up so late last night reading my novel and I'm sure we're going to get a really hard mission today."

"Really?" asked Naruto excitedly, "like, a super hard mission?"

"I think so Naruto," he replied a little mournfully.

"Sensei, if you don't want to do a hard mission today we can just refuse it. It's no big deal," said Sakura.

"No, I don't want to let Naruto down," Kakashi said with a smile that, despite his mask, his students were sure he had.

"Okay, let's go then!" shouted Naruto and Team 7 began their walk to the Hokage's office.

* * *

The Hokage assigned them a B-rank mission and, without even a complaint from Naruto, they set off into the forest. The goal of the mission was to discover the cause of some strange noises in the forest. Kakashi has a feeling it wouldn't be as straightforward as the Hokage said but he kept these thoughts to himself.

The team leapt from branch to branch as they neared the source of the noise. The sound was terrible, like fingernails on a chalkboard and a million drills buzzing all at the same time. They got closer and closer but eventually the noise became so terrible that they were forced to use earplugs to ward off the worst of the sound but even the earplugs couldn't completely get rid of the noise. Up ahead, Kakashi saw a small clearing and signaled his team to approach it with caution.

They settled in trees around the clearing as they resisted the urge to put their hands to their ears. Suddenly, Kakashi felt a small breeze behind him, and before he was able to turn around he felt a cold knife being pressed to his throat.

"What are you doing, Kakashi?" asks the voice of a girl.

Kakashi, recognizing the voice, gave a small gasp.

It was her, and she hadn't aged a day.


	2. Part II

A/N: Here's the second chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long to post but summer just started so I've been pretty busy.

Kakashi closed his eye and waited for the slash that would end his life but, surprisingly, the blow did not fall. His team rushed to the tree with a look of horror as they saw the girl with a knife pressed to his neck.

"Am I dead Kakashi?" she asked. "Are you ready to kill me yet?"

"No, I can't kill you," he replied sadly.

"Do you still want to?" she asked quietly.

Kakashi wanted to reply that of course he wanted to kill her, but he held his tongue. Now that he thought about it, he knew that he couldn't kill her now. He almost wanted to. Almost. She had killed Rin and for that he could never forgive her; but Kakashi also remembered the feelings that he once had for her and couldn't bring back the hatred he first felt after her betrayal. No, he couldn't kill her.

While he thought about this, his team stood there looking completely confused. They had no idea why a girl was holding a knife to Kakashi's neck and why Kakashi hadn't escaped. They were sure that this girl could never kill Kakashi. She couldn't. The girl was short, just over five feet, with long black hair. Her eyes were probably her most remarkable feature; they were a deep black but they occasionally twinkled with bright colors in their furthest depths. Now, they appeared to be alive with a silver fire that burned with both anger and pain.

Kakashi breathed deeply and hesitantly, drew away from the girl.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it," he said conversationally though his voice held something of an accusation.

"It has," she admitted sadly.

"Why are you here, and what are you doing?" Kakashi asked, though he didn't really expect an answer.

"I'm running away. I do that a lot, don't you think?" she replied.

"Why are you near Konoha? What are you planning?" he shot back at her.

She held Kakashi's one eye for a moment before looking at the sky. She seemed to be thinking of the best answer to give him: one that would betray nothing but still leave Kakashi satisfied.

"I came to see you, actually," she replied finally. "I've missed you a lot. I need to tell you the truth. I think that you deserve it."

"That's not why you've come. You could care less about me and even less about the truth. Everyone, including me, already knows the truth. There's nothing that you could say to change anyone's mind about you."

"I know," she replied with a pained expression. "I know that there is nothing I can do but I feel that I must tell the truth anyway. My life will soon be over and I would rather not be remembered for only that reason."

"What?" Kakashi asked. "What do you mean? How do you know that you are going to die? You have obviously performed some illegal jutsu to stay young this long…"

"Is that what you think I've done!" she exclaimed coldly. "I always thought that you were the one that knew me the best but this is what you think!"

"What do you expect me to think? You killed my only friend!" Kakashi practically screamed.

"Was I not your friend?" she cried in pain. "Do I not matter? Don't you care enough to let me explain what happened?"

"Listening to you won't make Rin come back. She's dead because you killed her and I was too stupid and blind to kill you first! What are you going to say that is going to make everything okay? There's no way to make up for what you did!"

"Kakashi, you idiot, Rin's alive. All this time has passed and I've finally decided to tell you and you don't even care to listen, but it's true: Rin's alive."


	3. Part III

PART III

Kakashi stood there for a moment, trying to absorb the impact of her words. Rin was alive? That couldn't be true. Kakashi himself had seen her body. She was most definitely dead and this stupid girl thought that she could fool him.

"Um, Kakashi sensei, what's going on?" asked Sakura cautiously.

Kakashi and the girl turned to the three students. The girl looked rather frightened.

"Who are you?" she asked bluntly.

"They're my students, stupid girl. They, on the other hand, are probably wondering who the hell you are," Kakashi replied coldly.

"Who is she Kakashi? Did she kill one of your friends? Is she stronger than you? Is she evil?" Naruto rattled off annoyingly.

Before he could reply, he heard voices talking quietly not too far away. The girl tensed and glanced nervously around.

"Can we get out of here, Kakashi?" she asked quietly. "There's a cave a couple of miles from here. We can talk there and I promise that I'll explain everything."

"Wait," he said before she could leap away. 'I'm not going anywhere with you. You could be making everything up and, with your chakra, you could just crush me when we get a little further from Konoha. No, I won't go anywhere with you unless you burn off all of your chakra."

"All of it," she replied weakly, looking scared.

"All of it," he replied firmly.

She sighed and, with several moments hesitation, placed her palm on the tree and willed all of chakra into its branches. Slowly, all of her chakra began to flow down her arm and into the tree. It took a while for all of her chakra to leave her body but when it was completely gone she stood up with a small sway.

"There," she said to Kakashi. "All of it is gone."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stared at her, confused. You couldn't just get rid of your chakra by putting it into a tree. Sakura was about to tell Kakashi that the girl must be lying but then she noticed the girl's eyes. They were as dark as midnight and were missing the once characteristic twinkle of the many colors that flashed through her eyes. Maybe, thought Sakura, that those lights were her chakra and that it was so powerful that it was visible to the eye. It was a pretty far-fetched idea that anyone was that powerful but still, the girl seemed so, well, deflated as compared to before. She had lost her bounciness and superiority that hung on her shoulders and seemed like little more than a small, frail child.

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A/N: Sorry it took so long to update this chapter and I'm sorry it's so short. Actually, this chapter was pretty lame. The next chapter is way better and it (finally) starts explaining everything that's happening. Gosh, I'm confused and I'm the author. I just watched The Fountain and it made my head hurt so badly I wanted to die. Wow, death was like the whole point of the movie. It was so depressing and confusing but it was really awesome. Okay, well I'm rambling on about nothing so I'll just shut up. The next chapter will be up in a day or two because I wrote it a couple of hours ago. :)


	4. Part IV

A/N: Sorry this took so long to update but I've been really busy and I kept having to rewrite this chapter. Hope you like it and please remember to review!

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PART IV

"Come on," she whispered urgently as the sounds began to seem closer and closer. "We must get to my refuge or we will be destroyed."

"Lead the way," replied Kakashi.

The girl leapt off the branch and started towards a small mountain a couple of miles away. Kakashi and his team hesitated for a moment and then raced after her. She led them to a cave on the mountain. Before entering, she muttered several words and then turned to the group assembled behind her.

"Be very careful and follow everything I do. I have covered this cave with several traps that could easily destroy you. Beware."

She began walking as though through an invisible maze and, with even more hesitation than last time, the rest of the group followed her. Finally, they reached the cave. Team 7 peered around the cave curiously. The walls and floor were smooth and clean and it looked nearly as comfortable as a home in Konoha. Despite this, several bags laying on the floor of the cave gave the appearance that the girl hadn't been here long. Still in awe, the team settled onto chair shaped rocks as the girl turned away from them and gave a short whistle. Answering the call were several large crows. The girl whispered to them for a moment and they flew away.

"I'm sorry," she said to Kakashi's disapproving glare. "I know that you hate my crows because of that little incident but, well, they really are very useful and deep down there just sweet-hearted little things."

Kakashi didn't reply but only stared at the girl with something akin to hatred. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto glanced back and forth between them.

"Wait, what did the crows do? Why does Kakashi sensei hate them?" blurted out Naruto in his usual annoying manner.

The girl replied with a grin, "Well, when we were younger, Kakashi challenged me to a duel in the hopes of proving he was the best ninja in all of Konoha. During the fight, he summoned his dogs and I summoned my crows. The crows got a bit carried away and almost killed one of Kakashi's cute little puppies."

"I don't have any cute little puppies," replied Kakashi indignantly.

"Oh, but they were. And well, kids, that's basically Kakashi's entire reason for hating my crows. I think that it's completely unfair considering Kakashi was the one to challenge me to a duel in the first place."

"Hey, why are you calling us kids? You look even younger than us!" fumed Naruto, hating the fact that he could still be considered a kid.

"Yeah," said Kakashi, "I wouldn't mind you explaining some things. Like why you look exactly the same as the day that you left the village."

The girl looked away, as though thinking about how best to answer instead of her usual look that gave you the idea that she was trying to figure out a way to not answer at all.

"Hey, wait," said Sakura. "What's your name?"

"I was wondering if you were going to ask me that," she said with a small smile. "My name is..."

* * *

A/N: I didn't mean to end the chapter like this but I just can't think of a name that would fit. If you have any ideas, please tell me!


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